Press Releases

August 30, 2007LVMH to support Millennium Development Goals

Bernard Arnault has publicly announced in August that he wholly supports the approach of Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister, in favour of the involvement of the private companies to meet Millennium Development Goals. Bernard Arnault deems that the stakes emphasized by Mr. Gordon Brown are today essentials, particularly for the future of the planet. The LVMH Group, involved for the preservation of the environment since 1992, considers that its own development must integrate the research of a better quality of life for their customers, employees, shareholders, the local authorities and the several communities concerned by these operations of production and retail all around the world.

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Background information

During a speech given on August 2nd, 2007, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, launched an initiative on development to mobilise a global partnership on development with politicians and private sector leaders aiming at tackling the emergency.

This initiative is supported by numerous political leaders, including the Secretary General of the UN Ban Ki-Moon, French President N. Sarkozy, Italian President R. Prodi, Portuguese President J. Socrates, Brazilian President L.I. Lula de Silva, South African President Th. Mbeki, and the President of Ghana and of the African Union, J.A. Kufuor.

Declaration on the Millenium Development Goals

At the Millennium Summit in 2000 we declared we would spare no effort to achieve the seven key Millennium Development Goals.

We have made some progress. But seven years later and half way to 2015 we are not on track to meet that commitment. We have just seven years to go – a few short years to make the difference for millions of people on our planet between grinding poverty and the opportunity to learn, be healthy and make enough to support their families.

We need urgent action to meet this development emergency if the world is to get back on track.

With political will in developed and developing countries we know we can make the difference. We can build on the progress that has been made in many countries and on every continent when the right policies and right reforms have been combined with sufficient resources.

But we need to go further. We need to mobilize all our efforts in both the developing and developed countries. Our eighth Millennium pledge was that we would “develop a global partnership for development”.

The time has come for us all to live up to that promise. We believe we now need an international effort that harnesses the power of everyone: the private sector, individuals, consumers, faith groups, cities, civil society organizations, as well as governments, north and south, to work together to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

We know what needs to be done and the urgency of doing it.

So today, as leaders, we declare our commitment to meet this development emergency. We commit to action and because the scale of the challenge means governments alone cannot achieve the difference we need, we call on all parties, including the private sector, civil society and faith groups, to play their part. It is only by acting together in a genuine partnership that we can succeed.

We urge the convening of a UN meeting in 2008 that brings together heads of government with leaders from the private sector, civil society and faith, to review progress made in the preceding 12 months and accelerate action.